Aoife

Comments

>"Eventually she was reconciled with her sister and became the lover of Cúchulainn."

I guess that's one way to put it.

Wikipedia:

"When Aífe turns to look, he overpowers her, throws her over his shoulder, and carries her back to his side. He held his sword at her throat as she begged for her life. He chooses not to kill her, on two conditions: that she cease hostilities with Scáthach and she bear him a son."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%ADfe

"When her rival, the warrior woman Aífe, threatens her territory, Cú Chulainn defeats Aífe in battle. At swordpoint, he decides to spare her life under the condition that she will lie with him and bear him a son. This rape leaves Aífe pregnant with his son Connla, whom Cú Chulainn kills years later - only realizing who Connla is after he has slain him."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sc%C3%A1thach

Sorry, but I've never been comfortable with hiding the ugliness of the past behind euphemisms.

Hmm, just too difficult whether as a child or an adult unless living in Southern Ireland... best keep it there.

― Anonymous User 11/3/2016

4

You don't have to be in/live Ireland to name your child Aoife. I don't know anyone in the US with this name so I can't comment on whether they'd know how to pronounce it or not. My grandfather is half/full Irish.. But I live in England and everyone I know knows how to pronounce Aoife so tell me again how you'd have to be in Ireland to name someone this or to know how to pronounce it.

I'm not Irish but my grandparents are. My daughter is now 15 months old and is named Aoife Belle. I don't have issues with people not pronouncing it correctly. I've only had to tell them once or twice. In my opinion, you shouldn't have to be Irish or living in Ireland to have a Irish name! My cousin is called Alisha and people call her 'A li sha' and that is a very common name. It doesn't matter what you name your baby. You'll always get mistakes.

This is a beautiful name and in my opinion we should start using these old Irish names wherever we live now even if we no longer live in Ireland but our ancestors come from Ireland. It brings a rich heritage to our children when they have names like these they are very uncommon and much better then the standard new names... without much history or meaning.

I don't see the big deal about using this name in an anglophone country. If I had Irish heritage, I would MUCH rather have a traditional Irish name than a butchered and/or faux one. And this is a fairly simple Irish name at that.

My siblings grew up with much more complicated foreign names, but they and others learned the pronunciation and spelling just fine. Xenophobes just need to suck it up.

This is the classic attempt of an American parent trying to sound unique. How many people will pronounce this correct right of the bat? I think we're looking at a whopping ZERO. The name itself, when pronounced correctly, is pleasant, but a tad bland. But, please, can we leave the Irish names to the Irish and name our children something they can pronounce themselves?

Who the *heck* can pronounce this? Unless you teach everybody in town (your, most likely, NON-Irish town) the paths and twists of Irish phonetics, you're gonna be getting "ah-oy-fuh," or "ah-oh-ee-fay," or God knows what.

This is a beautiful name with a great meaning & history. However, I wish to pronounce it right. I have gone to several sites and been given eefa, eefah, eefeh. Should I pronounce the fa like far, or fa like beginning of fa ctory, or feh like fe tch me the ball?

For the darker side of Aoife see King Lir's second wife who was a beautiful witch and turned all 4 of Lir's children into swans condemned to fly for 900 years. Still a beautiful name and worthy of any sorcerer.

*eek* Is this pronounced like it's spelled? I mean I know that Irish doesn't have the same phonetics as English, so is there some other way to say this name other than ay-oh-ee-fay? If not and this is the right way to say it, I find it to be a bit vowel-heavy and "ay-oh-ee" sounds like "owie" to me so you end up with "Owie Fay"(?) -- the fairy of boo-boo's? Hmmm. Um, no. Not pretty to me. I would LOVE to hear it said by an Irishman. I'm sure it lilts off the tongue, said correctly.

My name is Aoife and in the environment in which I work I state my name to 100s of people every day, receiving different impressions of the name. The majority of people like it but others get frustated because it contains most of the vowels in the alphabet. Sad but true! Usually people would like to change their name, but I love mine!